Radiation Terrorism Part 2

Types of Contamination

It can be of 3 types

• Whole body exposure
• External
• Internal

1. Whole body exposure
• Gamma rays, x-rays and neutrons which can penetrate through the body and cause severe tissue damage.
2. External contamination
• Effects body surface, clothing, skin, and hair.
• This is the main thing to be concerned about in a radioactive terrorist strike.
• These consist mainly of alpha and beta radiation.
• Alpha particles cause surface burns only.
• Beta particles can cause cutaneous burns and scarring.

More on Internal contamination in my next post.